London's airports hit by passenger fall

Plunge: A plane takes off at Heathrow, where passengers numbers have fallen by 1.4 per cent

THE number of people using London's airports has dropped over the year as a whole for the first time since 2001.

Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted all saw falls in passengers last year as the economic downturn deepened. Heathrow was down 1.4 per cent, Gatwick 2.8 per cent and Stansted six per cent compared with 2007.

The last time passenger numbers were down for a whole year was eight years ago when the 9/11 attacks scared millions off air travel. The previous big dip was in 1991 during the first Gulf war.

Today's figures show the fall in passenger numbers accelerated towards the end of the year at Gatwick and Stansted. Last month, compared with December 2007, Gatwick was down 13.8 per cent and Stansted 13 per cent.

Environmental campaigners seized on the figures, claiming they undermined the case for a third runway at Heathrow.

John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace, said: "With airport passenger numbers coming down and Eurostar becoming more successful, the case for high-speed rail makes any further aviation expansion ever more irrational."

Airport operator BAA insisted that the falls were a cyclical blip caused by the recession and that "passenger volumes will recover".

But aviation experts said there was mounting evidence that the long-term trend was pointing towards slowing passenger growth.

The Gatwick figures for December are partly due to the collapse of charter airlines as well as the Open Skies agreement with the US, which saw routes transfer from Gatwick to Heathrow. This artifically boosted Heathrow.

The Stansted figure was the result of lower demand for flights to European destinations because of the weaker economy and the strengthening euro. London City airport, which serves the financial community, also saw sharp falls late last year.

The Civil Aviation Authority statistics show that some of the most popular destinations have seen a massive loss of traffic.

In November the number of passengers travelling between Heathrow and Paris was down 16 per cent on 2007, Heathrow to Brussels by 10 per cent, Heathrow to Frankfurt by 15 per cent, Heathrow to Dublin by 12 per cent and Stansted to Frankfurt Hahn down by 23 per cent.

Flights between Gatwick and Alicante were down by 14 per cent, Heathrow to Rome by 10 per cent, Stansted and Rome Ciampino by 17 per cent. Heathrow to New York JFK was down by 17 per cent. Many other routes have been scrapped. BAA said: "Long-term prospects for growth remain good and passenger volumes will recover."